Worship and Warfare Part II, “Hindrances to Worship” Bible Study 12/15/10

Worship and Warfare Part II

Hindrances to Worship

Synopsis of Bible study 12/15/10

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

 

God is looking for worshipers. The bible teaches us that the Lord seeks those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says ⁹For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. -God is looking for people who are genuinely focused towards his glory. This is important, because when you think about worship, it is the idea of knowing who God is and it is the idea of being in relationship with who God is. How we comprehend or understand God is significant to how we worship. Ex – Look at the difference between Moses and the children of Israel. Psalm 103:7-8 says ⁷He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. ⁸The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. – This scripture is talking about God’s ways and acts. Psalm 95:10 says ¹⁰Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: – When you talk about the ways of God, you talk about the nature of God verses the act of God. If you only focus on the act of God without knowing the nature of God, then you will misinterpret who God is. Moses knew the ways of God. God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Sometimes God may act in a way or do something in our lives that we don’t agree, but if we know his nature, we know that what he allows is for our good. When we think about God’s acts, we refer to God’s actions. God is actively involved in our lives.

 

God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. This is a character statement explaining who God is.  Ex – You need a job, you pray for it, but you didn’t get. Just because you didn’t get that job, doesn’t mean God is not active on our behalf. It doesn’t mean he is not actively setting us up for another job. Because you know his ways, you still say he his Jehovah Jireh, because you know he is actively working on things for our behalf. We realize that he is Jehovah Rophe our healer. Just because we get a bad report doesn’t mean we are not getting healed. It means God may be taking the long route to bring things out of us and as a result, healing ultimately comes.

I.                   The new and living way

a.     Some people come to church, ready for worship, but there are a of lot distractions. As a result we find ourselves 20 mins into the service trying to get focused. Hebrews 10:19-20 says ¹⁹Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; – In the Old Testament, the way to the holies was behind the veil in the temple. Only the high priest could go there and he did so on our behalf. After Christ died, the veil was ripped in two. That meant we no longer do we needed a high priest to go to God on our behalf, because now we have access to him ourselves through our relationship with Christ our mediator. Hebrews 8:6 says ⁶But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises., Hebrews 10:20-22 says ²⁰By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; ²¹And having an high priest over the house of God; ²²Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. – You cannot try in the flesh to focus on spiritual things. You have to ask God to purify your heart so we can have a pure and holy experience with God without distractions. We are asking the Lord to give us a clean conscious. Flesh can’t do this. It is an act of the spirit. It is ok to tell the Lord that you can’t come into his presence with a lot of mess and distractions in our lives and we need him to remove it.

II.                The categories of man

a.     There are 3 categories of man. They are the Natural man, the carnal man, and the spiritual man.

i.        Natural Man - Unsaved person without access to the holy of holies.

ii.        Carnal Man– People that act both carnal and spiritual depending on what day it is.

iii.        Spiritual Man -Try to be spiritual all the time. We want to live by the spiritual and not the natural man. We want our spirit to transcend the carnal nature in our lives.

b.     Some revelations God doesn’t’ give us cause we are not at a spiritual place that we could receive them. 1 Corinthians 3:1 says ¹And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. – He speaks to us in a carnal way, because we can’t get it spiritually yet. Ex- When you witnessing to someone that is a babe in Christ, you can’t use a lot of spiritual jargons, because they don’t understand what you are saying.

c.     When you pray, remember the model prayer opens with worship and ends in worship. For example, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thou name … “The end says, “… for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever …” This is worship to. So it is safe to say it opens and closes by acknowledging. We can ask what we are asking fro in between, but we open and close with worship. This means I can’t effectively pray unless I am a true worshipper.

d.     We often quote the next scripture to support that we can ask God for anything and it will happen. Mark 11:23-24 says ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

e.     Know that if we hold on to this stuff in our heart, the promises will not happen because God will not hear our prayer. Psalm 66:18 says ¹⁸If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: – We try to worship holding on to carnality. God won’t hear you this way. It can be disillusioning. Ex- Say the husband or wife in a relationship is trifling, they devalue the other, and then one day they come and say to the other spouse, “I love you.”  To the nontrifling spouse, the fact that the trifling spouse has said “I love you” means nothing, because their heart shows different. Imagine how God feels.

III.             Hindrances to worship

1. Lack of knowledge-Says we don’t spend time in God’s word. Studying God’s word is worship. Worship means face to face kissing with God. We study God’s word to learn more about God. There are those who don’t know you, but want to be close to you like they do. Hebrews 11:6 says ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Every time we spend time in God’s word, we start becoming more like God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ¹⁸But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. – Worship should change you. We start to be more like him. Ex-Bishop explains he remembers when he was little, seeing a Deacon smoking a cigarette and cursing somebody out in the church parking lot. Bishop explains how as a young lad, this messed him up. We expect for people to look and be different when they come out of worship.

b.     Pride - 1 Corinthians 1:29 says ²⁹That no flesh should glory in his presence. – God is not impressed with our possessions. He is not impressed with what you drive, what you wear, or what kind of clothes you have on. He is looking for somebody that is desperate to have the glory of God on our life. Our flesh cannot glory. There are too much of us in the way. We should want people to see God and not ourselves.

c.     An independent attitude- It is that “I got it spirit.” You turn all your stuff inside, because you think you got it. The more you have it, the more messed up it gets. John 15:5 says ⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. – We are just a branch. Some of us just feel like we are just hanging on.

d.     A critical attitude- Often manifests out of pride or judging. Ex-One of the thesis is dealing with hierarchy of sin. It’s funny how people in church create hierarchy of sins as if some form of defiant behavior is greater than another. It is like saying that we can justify our behavior, because it is not bad as somebody else’s. Ex-I might do weed, but I don’t do crack or I am not a homosexual, but I will fornicate. Matthew 7:1-2 says ¹Judge not, that ye be not judged. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again., Romans 2:1 says ¹Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. – There is no hierarchy on sin. Sin is sin. Stealing is stealing. Whether you rob a store or shop lift, it is stealing.

e.     Apathy- This is laziness. How many people can have a lot of stuff to do and never seem to get it done? God is active. Apathy is like standing still. You are trying to get with the move of God, while standing still. God is always moving. Ex- If a truck is going 30 miles per hour, the likelihood of you jumping on the truck from a standstill if far less likely than if you trotted alongside the truck and then jumping on. This is the same way with the God. You can have a powerful move of God going on and some are wonder what is going on. They have apathy. They are just sitting there waiting to jump onto the move of God. On the other hand, you have others that are already running just waiting for the move of God to come by so they can jump on.

f.      Slothfulness - Ecclesiastes 10:18 says ¹⁸By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. – Doing nothing, the house is decaying until it finally falls through. In other words, everything you do just falls through due to your idleness.

g.     Impatient - We want things right now in this day and age. Hebrews 6:12 says ¹²That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. – Sometimes you have to learn how to turn stuff over. What about those bills? They turned over and decided not to worry about it anymore. These are people who have turned it over to God and decided to let God handle it. We want to wait for God’s best to manifest in our lifein our lives. -James 1:4says ⁴But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. – The devil will try to capitalize on your lack of patience. He will try to get us to believe that God is taking too long.

h.     Legalism- This is the subtle hindrance. It is becoming proud of all you do for Christ. You want brownie points for what you have done. They think their works earned them certain benefits. They have entitlement issues. Isaiah 64:6 says ⁶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. – The purpose of worship is not to draw attention to your work, but his work.

i.      Worldliness- We can’t escape the world system, but we have to learn to live above it. 1 John 2:15 says ¹⁵Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – We have to learn to live in another kingdom. Even though I obey the laws of this world, we live by different laws. We are not impacted by what the world is impacted with. We don’t have to lose our integrity to climb the corporate ladder. The world calls it recession and we call it regrouping. Just because we are in recession don’t mean that God can’t open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don’t have the room to receive. We are living in another world system.

j.        Unforgiveness- This will always separate us from worship. There are 2 ways to look at this. #1 we don’t forgive and #2 we don’t ask forgiveness from God. Ex- Remember the illustration we gave one step towards God and then we take 3 steps back. Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:1-2 says ¹Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ²But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.- When we pray we have to ask God to forgive us for our trespasses. Mark 11:25 says ²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. – We must forgive. Every day we wake up, we are in a place of confessions. If you have problems praying, start with what you have to repent from. That will be enough to keep us praying without ceasing. 1 John 1:9 says ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – When we take the 3 steps back, our confession helps to make up some of that ground. It bring us back closer to that intimate relationship with God.

k.     Wrong priorities- Exodus 20:3 says ³Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Matthew 6:33 says ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. – Seek means to pursue. God is active and because we are like him, we are not apathetic. This means we are actively in pursuit of something. If we pray “thou kingdom come”, this is God’s way of doing things. We are saying let your super come down into our natural making it super natural. We seek or are in pursuit of God’s way of doing things and we are in pursuit of his righteousness. We want continuity. Instead of worship being a verb, we want it to be noun. It is not what we do, but who we are. Thing shall be Added- We didn’t seek after the things. We sought him and the things just came. Matthew 7:7 says ⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: -If you asked God for it, he already knows what you want. We need super to come down into our natural. What is knocking? It is an intimate relationship or worship. Knocking is worshiping God so the door will be opened. What is the door? You need God to open the doors in heaven for you. It’s a supernatural door. You need things done that can’t be done down here. God says you already asked me. You don’t have to remind him. God is looking for people who could worship him before it happens and having faith that he is working to make it happen. If you don’t worship him, then you don’t have faith and belief that he is actively making it happen. Ex-In Acts 12, Peter was in prison. The church was a Mary’s house praying. While they were praying for Peter and the doors of prison opened up where Peter was. It was supernatural. If you worship him here and God will open doors there! Take a moment to worship him for who he is and his glory will come!

Worship and Warfare, “What do these two things have in common?” Bible Study 12/08/10

Worship and Warfare

What do these two things have in common?

Synopsis of Bible Study 12/8/10

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

After completing the series Angels and Demons, all of us can testify that there demons that exist to prevent the manifestation of God’s will into our lives. Just as we accept the fact that there are angels that God has encamped around us, we must acknowledge that there are demonic forces (demons) who attempt to prevent God’s will from coming to pass in our lives.

Worship is the tool that allows us to transcend the attacks that occur in our lives.

A good framework for worship is:

Who God is (on one side) ———————————————————— Relationship (on the other side)

Worship is built out of a response to our revelation of who God is. How do we know who God is? We know who God is by experiences God allows each of us to go through. We think about the names of God and we know that the names of God come to us as adjectives (names that are descriptive of God’s nature). These names of God were given to us by people who had gone through certain events and consequently they called God by what those experiences meant to them. Ex- God never called himself Jehovah Jireh. Instead it was Abraham who called God this in Genesis 22 after he saw God make a way out of no way. Abraham said he would name this place Jehovah Jireh, because it was here that the Lord did provide for him. This is what we call experiential knowledge. We experience something, we come into knowledge, and God’s nature or character is revealed to us. Without those experiences, we would never have this revelation of God.

So God gives us a series of things to go through. If we were to interview everyone that is reading this and ask them who God is to them, each one would give a different answer. Ex- For somebody, he is a rent payer, for another he is tuition payer, for another he is money between jobs, and somebody else he is peace in the midnight hour. When you look at who God is, you will notice that your definition of God came out of some of the experiences you had. Now that we understand this, know that who God is to us might be different compared to who God is to another. God might not be the same from person to person, but we all agree that God is. This is not a denial or defense of God’s existence. We believe by faith according to Heb 11.6 that no man goes to God without first believing God is. Hebrews 11:6 ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

So the question is not in knowing who God is. The idea is because we know through experiences that God reveals himself to us by bringing us into the knowledge of who he is. Now that we realize who he is, it solidifies, strengthens us, and pulls us into relationship with him. We have a sense of religion, a religious model, or a religious institution that is supposed to pull us closer to God.

How does this happen?

Religion – God comes and delivers us from religion through Jesus Christ and bring us into relationship. So the revelation of who God is one thing but the relationship is a result of the revelation. This means you can be in church all your life and never have a true relationship with God, because you have never known who he really is for yourself. In other words you can end up knowing who he is based on second and third hand information, but that is not your revelation. Your revelation must be personal.

Hold on to these words. On one hand we have who God is and on the next hand we have relationship.

Concepts:

1. The enemy wants to make your reality so messed up, you stop focusing on who God is and start focusing on what’s happening around you. Who God is remains the same no matter how or what you go through changes.
2. The enemy tries to get you out of relationship with God by asking, “If God is who you say he is, then why are you experiencing this?”Ex- If God is a healer, why are you still sick? If God is a deliverer, why are you still in the same situation you are in? The warfare is in your mind. The devil gets you to question why you are still in the same situation you are in. When we really have a relationship with God based on our experiences that we’ve had, we recognize that who God is doesn’t change even if our situation changes. So if God doesn’t deliver us, he’s still is deliver. If he doesn’t give us the job we wanted, he is still a provider.
3. You can’t get bogged down. The warfare is always in what, how, when. What is happening to me? How am I going to get out of this? When is it going to happen for me? This is all warfare.
4. Worship doesn’t deal with that. Worship deals with who? We may not know how or what or when, but what keeps us in our right mind is who? We may not know the how, what, or the when, but we know the who and as long as we know who, we know that God has it all in control. Worship then is who he is and Relationship is a direct result of knowing who he is.

Some Hebrew Words:

1. Shachah (7812 shaw-khaw) – The word meaning bow down before an object of honor. It is a show of humility. Nehemiah 8:6 says ⁶And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground. – In this scripture, Israelites bowed low and worshipped the Lord. Psalm 95:6 says ⁶O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. – People will come to a place of humility in worship
2. abad (5647 aw-bad) – This means service or work for God. Deals with as long as I am in the purpose of God, everything I do in his will is considered worship. Ex-When we go on our job, our job is worship to God, because we want God to get the glory. As a result, every day we wake up and go to our job, we say “God is awesome because he allowed us the opportunity to have what others wished they had.” We understand that we must go to work on time, because God doesn’t get the glory if we represent him in a trifling manner. We must finish our projects. We shouldn’t strive not to be as good as, instead we should strive to be better than. We must operate in the spirit of excellence. We must change the environment on our job. We must be the one that is speaking positive about things instead of negative so that God is glorified. We don’t get caught up in calling our boss names in the break room. Even though we don’t get along with folk on the job, we want to worship God, so everything that we do, we try to do our best, because we want to worship him. Everything you do in purpose is abad.
3. yir’ah – This means reverence. Fear and reference. It is recognition of a higher authority. Until you truly reference God, you will never really worship him. Ex- When you go to court and the bailiff says “all rise”, you stand up. Why do you stand up? It is because you give honor and reference to the authority of the judge. Whether you met the judge or not, you respect the authority. How can you give the judge that much authority on the bench, but sit during worship? It is a labor for you to stand up when the presence of the Lord is in this place but you never question standing up for a judge. It is only when you reverence and come under the authority of God, that you will reference him. You will honor him, because you know him. Experiences have pushed you to this place.

General Concepts of Worship

1. Honor, respect, devotion, reverence, veneration, adoration, and admiration towards an object, are all parts of worship.
2. The first two concepts that we looked at the beginning of this lesson was “who God is” and “relationship.” Ex - Let’s assume that the pulpit in a church is God. Now let’s examine how we get into relationship with God. We look at the church as a tool to point us towards God. We come to church to get closer to God. Every day we desire to get closer to God, and then we backslide and take 3 steps back. We come back to church (one step forward) and we backslide again (3 steps back). We get caught in this cycle of back and forth. It is hard to get in the infinite space with God. That’s why a lot us don’t reverence or worship God. We can’t worship God at a distance. We need to get closer to him. At a distance it just becomes a religious act to us. Ex- We lift our hands in worship just because the praise leaders tell us to and we stand up in worship because somebody told us to. This is because we are at a distance from God. Because God knows the struggle we have trying to get intimate with him, watch what he does. Ex- We pray (One step towards God) and then we hook up with our Ex (3 steps back). God says he will take us through some things and when we come out we will say, “I am closer now than I was before I went through this”. Then God will take us through something else again. You hate it while you are going through, but God knows why you have to go through it. When you come out of that storm, you will be so close to him, your worship is no longer manufactured by religion. It becomes real. Nobody has to ask you or force you to do anything any longer. Now because of our experiences, we know who God is and our relationship is real.
3. When you worship, know that all worship is not worship to God. All of us have an innate desire to recognize something or someone beyond ourselves.

6 areas a lot of us mess up.

1. Some people worship natural objects. In history there were sun worshippers.
2. Some people worship constructed images (idols). In Acts 17:22 it says ²²Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  Paul also told the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10:20 ²⁰But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. – They had been sacrificing to devils. Paul warned that they should not be doing this.
3. Some people worship human intellect. It is ok to have a great mind, be brilliant, and honor those with great minds, but you don’t worship them. Some of these people that have great minds don’t think they need God. Romans 1:25 says ²⁵Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. – How can you worship the created over the creator?
4. Some people worship material objects- These are things such as autos, stocks and bonds, and houses. These people are those who have changed stewardship to ownership. They missed the fact that God gave them a car or the house to be a good steward over it. The question should be raised, why did the Lord bless us with the home or car? Was the car just to drive us to work with four empty seats? Why did he bless us with the home? Though you have the deed to your house or the title to your car, it is still belongs to the Lord. We can’t worship this stuff, because if you do, you will wind up putting your tithe in your rims instead of giving it to God.
5. Some people worship people- Some people worship preachers, heroes, politicians, musicians, and etc… Don’t worship your Pastor, just trust them. Here is an example of worshipping your Pastor; if you don’t want to come to your church when the Pastor is not preaching, you are border-line worshipping him. We say this, because through the God in him, you don’t believe that he wouldn’t leave you in good hands he isn’t going to be there. Ex- There is some people think Elvis is still alive. They have shrines built for him and everything. Because they worshipped him, they refuse to accept his death.
6. Some people worship associations – Some people sororities, fraternities, and societies. They don’t touch their fraternity apparel. You are worshiping an object when you let it change who you are.

Religious Concepts

1. Activity oriented- We come, we sing, we pray, we listen, and we serve.
2. Emotion oriented- We like what makes us feel good.
3. Intellect oriented worship – This is about how we think or believe. It is about our ideology.
4. Benefit oriented -   This is about what do we get out of it. Some people get strength, some get patience, some energy, and others blessings.
5. Religious oriented worship can mess you up. What happens is you become event centered worshippers. There is a certain time you have to worship or you can’t seem to get into worship mode. Ex- Like the Jewish Sabbath (day of rest) or Christian Sunday. You feel if you can’t worship on this day, then you can’t worship. Jesus dealt with this when he said Sabbath wasn’t made for man, but man for the Sabbath.
6. Place of worship- These are people that can’t worship unless they are in a building that looks like a church. Ex- Before the Old HB location was built, Mt Zion met at the world Baptist Center and then the TSU Gentry Center. Some folk complained that it didn’t feel like church in the gym. Remember, the church is in you.
7. Procedures of worship - These are those who must have programs, art forms, and must light candles as part of their worship experience. For them, the preacher has to have on ecclesiastical garments. If the preacher is not dressed accordingly, then it is not worship to them. If it doesn’t fit the way they used to do it, then they can’t worship.

Christian Concepts of Worship

1. It is not about event centered worship or activity centered worship. It is Christ centered worship. Christian worship must be Christ in action. Once we know who God is, and we have experiences that have brought us to this revelation, then our relationship with him is solidified and strengthened based on what we have gone through and as a result, now we know who he is.
2. Based on who he is our expression of worship is no longer just a verb. It is noun. Worship is not just something that we do, it is something we are. We don’t’ just come to the church building to worship. Ex- This is like a husband who doesn’t come home, doesn’t say anything to you all day, doesn’t compliment you all week, and then he wants to be intimate. Just because he says come on, he figures you are supposed to be ready. The wife can’t be turned on and off like this. Work has to be put in beforehand.  We do God the same way. We don’t pray, we half come to church, we half talk to him, and then we ask the Lord to step in on our behalf. If out of his mercy he does step in, soon after we go back to our normal routine.
3. Wherever we go, worship is there. Wherever we go is where worship is, because we are worship.
4. In John 12 there are two stories which are result of what happened in chapter 11. In chapter 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Mary and Martha were mad, because they thought Jesus was too late arriving there. They needed a revelation, because they clearly didn’t know who Jesus was. Jesus says I am the resurrection. He brought them into who he was. As a result, they entered into a greater relationship with Christ. In chapter 12 we see the manifestation of this relationship. Lazarus was in the house with Mary and Martha, about to eat. 6 days before the Passover came in Bethany; Lazarus who had been dead was sitting there. They made Jesus supper and Martha served it. Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Jesus. Lazarus the one who was dead had the mindset of “Now I am alive, so wherever the man who raised me up is, I will be.” When you been through some stuff, wherever God is, that’s where you want to be! Lazarus is hitched to Jesus. Mary took a pound of expensive oil and she bowed down and poured it on Jesus feet. She washed his feet with her hair. The aroma filled the whole house. Judas who would later betray him said they could have feed the poor with this expensive oil. He thought it was wasteful. Jesus said to religion; leave her alone, because she saved this worship for this moment. People who have relationship will offer their best to God. Religion will always say that’s too much. Jesus is on the side of relationship. People who have relationship know who God is. People who are critical are too far away to appreciate this expression of worship. 
5. Jesus is on the side of relationship, not religion. Jesus says the poor you will have always, but he reminds the disciples that they weren’t going to have him always. Much of the Jews knew Jesus was there and they didn’t come to see Jesus only. They wanted to see the evidence (Lazarus who was raised from the dead). This is why people don’t like us. We are evidence of what God can do. If the enemy can take you out, they destroy the evidence.
6. Lazarus represents revelation. What warfare is trying to do is kill your revelation. Without revelation, people will never know who God is. You been through too much to have your revelation killed. You can’t kill someone that has been killed and brought back to life.
7. Through revelation others are saved. The Scribes and Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus the revelation. People will come to know Christ if we start talking.
8. A lot of people came to the feast because they heard Jesus was coming. They wanted to be where Jesus was. They took branches and palm trees with them and they cried Hosanna blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
9. Jesus when he found a young donkey sat on it. John 12:15 says ¹⁵Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.
10. These things his disciples didn’t’ understand at first. John 12:16 says ¹⁶These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.- We went through things before we finally got it. They remembered that these things were written about Jesus.
11. People that saw Jesus raise Lazarus up were witnesses. John 12:17 says ¹⁷The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record.- When you worship the king, you are a witness of what he has done.
12. The Pharisees say they can’t stop it, because the whole world has shifted their focus on Jesus. John 12:18 says ¹⁸For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.- When you can come to a place where you stop focusing on all the things the enemy is trying to throw at you, then start focusing on who God is in your life. This is where worship really easy. When you complain, you are glorifying the devil. When you can say, I know who he and I protest all the things that are coming at me, then you have chosen not to give them mental space or time out of our mouth. We give God glory for who he is.
13. In verse 10 they wanted to know who Jesus was. Matthew 21:10says ¹⁰And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
14. In verse 11 the multitude said this is Jesus. Matthew 21: 11 says ¹¹And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. -You want to know why we lift our hands and give him glory; it is because we know who he is. We have a relationship him that is so amazing; no one can rob who he is from us. We aren’t too focused on what we are going through; we are focusing on giving him glory. If we give God glory, the enemy can’t prevail. The Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus, but the worship was too great. If you worship God, he will fight your battles. If you learn to lift your hands in a real manner, he will fight that battle for you. There is power in worship. Your warfare can be won in worship.